Review of I, Robot (2004) by Filipeneto — 22 Aug 2021

I didn't have many expectations when I decided to see this film: the title didn't inspire me much and the presence of Will Smith, an actor I never really liked, didn't make me foresee anything grand either. In fact, this film is quite banal in its essence, but it fulfills its main task, which is to entertain us without being able to misuse the time spent watching it.

The script is quite simple, in my opinion: winking at the noir genre, this film is a police investigation run by a skeptical, suspicious detective, somewhat neurotic in his way. Everything takes place in the year 2035 (only a few years from now): humanity has become fond of the uses of robots and uses them for all the jobs that prove to be tiring or repetitive. The crime is the seemingly impossible suicide of a leading scientist associated with robotics. From the beginning, the detective suspects murder, and the attitude of a robot that seems excessively rebellious. However, what his investigation will reveal is far more serious than he could have imagined.

The film is a crossover of elements that would seem unlikely at first glance: the CGI-laden sci-fi mixes with a main character who seems to have stepped out of “Sin City”, in her suspicious, pessimistic, gloomy attitude. The story is good enough to hold us to the end, even though it's pretty clear that it's all going to turn into a conspiracy where world domination will be up for grabs. There are some dissonant points, subplots that never develop, a world that seems to have evolved too quickly in less than fifty years (the film is from 2004, the story takes place in 2035) and which the film doesn't explore. It's not a movie for an audience that wants to think about what they've seen, just a movie to spend some time entertained. In that light, I think the production was very unambitious.

Will Smith is not an actor I particularly like. He's good for certain jobs, but he's not the kind of actor I would consider versatile or multifaceted. Here, the actor never seems to be really committed, and does a lazy, sloppy job, in a mix of “MIB” and “Wild Wild West”. He has presence, he has charisma, we can't deny him that, but he does little more than the basics. Bridget Moynnahan provides an interesting counterpoint to Smith, and manages to be more than a pretty face to support the lead actor. Bruce Greenwood is good, but he doesn't have the time or material to go beyond what he was. Alan Tudyk models his voice very well and adapts relatively well to the character, but the movie was not for him to shine.

On a technical level, the film bets almost entirely on a heavy and ubiquitous CGI, which dominates cinematography in a way that I found excessive, mainly because it was noted too much that everything was fake. It wasn't a quality, realistic, natural CGI. The sets and costumes work satisfactorily, but not surprising either. Alex Proyas' direction has proven to be adept at creating its own visual style and using cinematography to amplify the grandeur of what we are seeing. The soundtrack didn't satisfy me either.